Parents are being given the right to report mothers and fathers of disruptive pupils to education authorities. Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, yesterday announced plans to bring in contracts for parents, to improve behaviour in the classroom and to encourage families to take more responsibility for their children.

He hopes that the proposal, which will be in an education Bill in the next session of Parliament, will help to stop one pupil disrupting a class. “If the large majority of parents are doing the right thing, but a small minority do not engage, you can have one lesson for 30 kids disrupted by one child,” Under the plans parents will have to reaffirm their support for the Home School Agreement which sets out parents’ responsibilities to make sure their children follow the school discipline code, the policy on uniforms and homework.

Parents will also in future have to say they will support the agreement when they express a preference for the school they wish their children to attend.

Mr Balls said: “Every parent will have to, as part of the admissions process, say they take on board the obligations in the Home School Agreement, and every parent will be expected to reaffirm that every year.

“If other parents feel that the HSA is not being enforced against other parents they will be able to tell the Local Education Authority.”

He added: “Heads will be able to say to the recalcitrant parents, if you do not sign this or make sure they do the homework, or support discipline, then we will take that as evidence in the magistrates’ court.”

Breaking a contract could be used as evidence in court if magistrates are considering imposing a parenting order.

In a further measure intended to encourage parents to take more responsibility for their children, 20,000 families are to be given help in how to run their daily lives.

They will be given supervision to make sure their children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals. Parents will also be offered help to deal with their own problems including drug and alcohol addiction.

An estimated 2,000 families have already received help under Family Intervention Projects but the Government said it wanted the scheme operating in every local authority area of England.

Ministers said 20,000 families would be receiving help within the next two years at a cost of between £5,000 and £20,000 per family.

In the most serious cases families are removed from their homes and placed in new accommodation to enable them to have a fresh start.

Mr Balls said: “This is pretty tough and non-negotiable support for families to get to the root of the problem,” he said.

“There should be Family Intervention Projects in every local authority area because every area has families that need that support.”

Among other measures annnounced are new powers to allow ministers to intervene and order management changes to failing Youth Offending Teams.

The proposals follows a report by the Chief Inspector of Probation which said that none of the 157 YOTs in England and Wales excelled in all areas of work. “No youth offending team can afford to be complacent, and there is much to learn from each other”, the chief inspector said in his annual report.

Recent reports gave Sefton YOT in the north west a “very disappointing” rating while Salford YOT received a “disappointing” score.

The Youth Crime Action Plan, published yesterday said: “Where inspection of YOTs finds serious problems which the local authority does not address, ministers are clear there should be further powers for intervention.”

Chris Grayling, Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This is all much too little, much too late.

“This Government’s been in power for more than a decade, during which time anti-social behaviour, family breakdown and problems like alcohol abuse and truancy have just got worse and worse.”

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